'''Read [[Features|new features]].'''
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{{newreview
|author=Dori Ostermiller
|title=Outside the Ordinary World
|rating=4
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=Although not keen on the title (a little clunky) I did feel that this was going to be a book I'd enjoy. Ostermiller has some fulsome praise for this debut novel including from the author [[:Category:Diane Chamberlain|Diane Chamberlain]]. And after reading the back cover blurb I can sense a similarity which is fine by me. (I thoroughly enjoyed all of Chamberlain's books). Would I enjoy this book as much?
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>077830468X</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Leon Jenner
site, she starts to lose focus on the important things in her life – including her family and the Star Makers’ new production.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1409520919</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Kathryn James
|title=Mist
|rating=4
|genre=Teens
|summary=Thirteen year old Nell Beecham is nowhere near as cool or pretty as her glamorous sister Gwen. But when Gwen goes missing after a sweet sixteen party in the woods, and Nell realises her new friend Evan River is somehow linked to the kidnapping, it's left to the younger girl to try to save the day.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1444903063</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Jason Heller
|title=The Captain Jack Sparrow Handbook: A Guide to Swashbuckling with the Pirates of the Caribbean
|rating=4
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
|summary=You don't see pirates reading many books. If you ask me, it's because their hooks make the pages hard to turn. Of course, the salty damp air would do nothing for a book's longevity, just one more reason to make sure you've read and understood this before you take to the ocean wave and set sail on your adventures.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1594745048</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Ira Levin
|title=A Kiss Before Dying
|rating=5
|genre=Crime
|summary=I haven't read any of Levin's books to date although I know various titles from television and films etc. And what struck me straight away was the terrific introduction by Chelsea Cain. Most intros can be rather dull and pedantic but this one is refreshingly different. It starts with the eye-catching line 'I could kill Ira Levin' and left me eager, very eager to get on and read the book.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1849015910</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Tim Parks
|title=Teach Us to Sit Still: A Sceptic's Search for Health and Healing
|rating=5
|genre=Autobiography
|summary=Self-help books are pretty polarising when you think about it. I mean, would you tell somebody that you were reading a self-help book if you had no idea how they were going to react? On the one hand there must be people who devour these kinds of books one after the other, searching for that mystical formula that will bring about profound inner change. At the other end of the scale are readers that steer well clear of self-help or anything else that isn't rational and based on proper scientific research and evidence. Entrenched views are what makes this title an interesting proposition. A sceptic's search for health and healing which alludes to meditation? Surely much more interesting than a new age guru who already believes wholeheartedly that their insights will transform YOUR life and enrich their bank balance. I want to know how the sceptic was convinced, not the guy who entered the room wearing healing crystals.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099548887</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Simon Ings
|title=Dead Water
|rating=3
|genre=Crime
|summary=The standard advice to artists has always been "don't gild the lily". For those writers who appear not to understand how this relates to their art form, let me offer up a basic translation: don't complicate a brilliant plot!
Dead Water suffers from such gilding.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1848878885</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Ludwig Bechstein, Axel Sceffler and Julia Donaldson
|title=The Gloomster
|rating=4.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=We've all been there. Finding fault with everything around us, and perhaps picking on one particular irritant that gets us so rattled, tetchy and narked all we can do is invoke "Hell and damnation!" down on all creation - including, of course, ourselves. After all, our lot is so bad it won't make anything much worse.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0571274242</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Kate Harrison
|title=Soul Beach
|rating=3.5
|genre=Teens
|summary=Alice's older sister Meggie, a university student and erstwhile reality show star, was found dead 4 months ago. Murdered. After prolonged Police investigations and appeals it's time, finally, for the funeral, a chance to put Meggie to rest. But for Alice, this is just the beginning. As she's getting ready to bury her sister, she receives an odd email that's claiming to be ''from'' said sister. It's clearly a joke, and one in very bad taste at that, but when you're 16 years old and your best friend and confidante has been ripped viciously out of your life, you'll cling to just about anything. The invitation invites Alice to 'join' Meggie on Soul Beach…a Social Networking site for the young and the dead. And though she's sure it's a ruse, Alice cannot help clicking through to see who or what awaits her.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1780620063</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Elliott Skell
|title=Neversuch House: Mask of the Evergones
|rating=5
|genre=Confident Readers
|summary=The Halibuts are an extraordinary family. Almost two centuries ago the Captain used his immense wealth to buy up land and surround it by a high wall. He took a wife, and employed families of servants to serve his every need. Money was no object, and subsequent generations of Halibuts had anything they desired on one condition: if they ever left the grounds of the House, they could never return.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1847387446</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Alexander McCall Smith
|title=Isabel Dalhousie: The Charming Quirks of Others
|rating=3.5
|genre=General Fiction
|summary=I do wonder, sometimes, how it is possible that Mr Alexander McCall Smith can possibly manage to write so many novels? Wouldn't it be fascinating to meet him, and see if the stories just ooze out of him non-stop, and if he walks around with pen and paper at all times jotting things down as they occur to him... In this book he's bringing us back, once again, to Isabel Dalhousie's world. If you don't know who Isabel is then you should really forget all about this book for the moment and go right back to the beginning to [http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0349118698?tag=thebookbag-21&camp=1406&creative=6394&linkCode=as1&creativeASIN=0349118698&adid=12XVW0J2SJ9MJA2J2YPB& The Sunday Philosophy Club] so you can get all the characters in order and know what's going on. If you're already up to date, however, and have read up to [[The Lost Art of Gratitude by Alexander McCall Smith|The Lost Art of Gratitude]] then you're good to go!
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0349123128</amazonuk>
}}
{{newreview
|author=Claudia Myatt
|title=Go Green! A Young Person's Guide to the Blue Planet
|rating=5
|genre=Children's Non-Fiction
|summary=Go Green!? Forget that title. What planet does that come from? Let's start again. This fantastic book is about the ''blue'' stuff, everything from oceans to raindrops. The book covers just about every angle that a child passionate about water might conceivably find of interest – marine creatures, icebergs, sunken volcanoes, tsunamis, undersea exploration, bores and whirlpools, inland waterways, tides, lochs and locks. There are answers to lots of questions of the 'Why is the sea blue?' variety. Sandwiched into this comprehensive guide to the physical geography and biodiversity of the seas (probably enough for GCSE) is a large dollop of green ketchup, to be sure, but my instinctive reaction is that here is the best children's introduction to 'water' that I've ever seen.
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>1906435014</amazonuk>
}}
